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Matthew Schulte

The assigned reading was all about the different systems to teach. One interesting thing

that I found was the different positives and negatives for each system. The Letter Names and

Fixed-Do systems, for example, correlate well with symbols. However, both systems fail to

provide a sound-based approach. Both fail to appeal to beginners, encountering notation is a

prerequisite, and both are opposed to the generalization of identical patterns from one pitch level

to another. The Number system is an improvement over the previous systems in that the numbers

can be used throughout the scales. The downside is the fact that there is no way to make a

distinction between different scales and different accidentals. The Movable-Do system provides

a case in which do is always assigned to the tonic. In this system, there are two ways of reading

minor: La-Minor and Do-Minor. Of the two, La-Minor is superior to Do-Minor when looking for

a system for Sound Connections.

Rhythm systems appear the same in terms of positives and negatives. The Time-Value

Names system fails on a rhythmic level from the beginning. The French Time-Names system

created by Pierre Galin acts in a similar way to the Time-Value Names system, in which it fails

to encompass many different rhythms and meters. The Simplified French Time-Names system

has some positives in that it focuses on the beat rather than the note symbols. However, the

problems arise when using it with compound meter. The Kodály Method has the same problems

that the French Time-Names possessed, as well as notes lacking any duration. The Counting

Method succeeds in metric function, but requires students knowing notation beforehand. In

addition, it was created for simple-meter patterns without consideration for compound meters.

Use of this method in compound meters only serves to confuse and eliminate the essence of

compound meter. A version of Counting, created by Allen McHose and Ruth Tibbs, fixes much

of the original’s shortcomings. Each beat has unique syllable combinations for both simple and
Matthew Schulte

compound meter. However, it ends up difficult and confusing due to the combination of syllables

and no distinction in subdivisions. The Gordon Syllables changes some of the initial consonants

and considers variable-beat meters like 5/8 and 7/8. Although it experiences some of the same

difficulties as McHose and Tibbs, but took a huge step forward in the sense of variable-beat

meters. Takadimi was designed by Richard Hoffman, William Pelto, and John W. White. It

contains a lot of improvements over other systems, such as unique syllables for simple and

compound meter, uses different consonants for each beat, and focuses on such things like

quintuplets.

Throughout my life, I have used a variety of different systems for both notes and

rhythms. I used very simple systems all the way until high school, such as just tapping out the

beat and singing la. When I got into high school, I experienced other kinds of systems. We

practiced sight-reading using numbers for both major and minor scales, and counted beats using

a basic syllable like da. This was different for show choir, however, where we used numbers to

count out rhythms while dancing. Reading about all these different kinds of systems surprised

me. I had never used the solfege system or had any way of connecting a note to a syllable, so

learning there were so many kinds of systems was interesting and fun to learn about. One main

connection I made was seeing all the systems I had learned to use. Now that I have read this and

I look back on it, they didn’t help much in long-term learning. At this point in my life, using

numbers or simple syllables for rhythms is easy. Note reading and sight-reading are where I

struggle. Finding out that only 0.01% of people have perfect pitch surprised me because I know

someone who truly has perfect pitch. I do not, however, and I either need a piano to pound out

the note or I have to base everything off of C, even though I usually fail to find the right note.

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